China's "flying car" orders have been scheduled until 2025

Our reporter Suo Hanxue reports from Haikou

Low-altitude aircraft are booming.

During the 2024 Hainan Consumer Expo, a reporter from China Business News learned from Chinese flying car manufacturer EHang that its orders for manned unmanned aerial vehicles have been scheduled until after 2025, with the number of orders between 1,000 and 2,000 units.

On April 13, Sheng Qiuping, Vice Minister of Commerce, investigated the development of low-altitude economy and other industries at the 4th Consumer Expo, and said in the EHang Smart Exhibition Area that the country clearly supports new consumption, covering digital consumption, health consumption and green consumption. As part of digital consumption, the low-altitude economy will be vigorously developed along with other new consumer industries such as cruise yachts, RV camping, motor racing, entertainment and tourism, and smart homes.

The price is 2.39 million

It is understood that the price of the aircraft is 2.39 million yuan, and the price is 410,000 US dollars for overseas markets. Lin Qiao, a staff member of EHang, told reporters: "The manufacturing cycle of a single aircraft is about 2 to 3 months, and the company's annual production capacity does not exceed 1,000 units. ”

Under this production capacity, the company's orders have been scheduled until 2025. Its manufacturing plants are mainly concentrated in Guangzhou.

Lin Qiao told reporters that the current main consumers are urban operation departments, tourist attractions and overseas trial production. Due to the limited operating conditions at low altitudes, the current product is not suitable for toC.

When the reporter asked whether the customer needed a loan to purchase an aircraft worth 2.39 million yuan, he said that some customers adopted financial leasing and other modes to purchase.

In January 2021, the Airworthiness Certification Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China officially accepted the company's EH216-S type certificate application, and the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system has successfully obtained the type certificate, standard airworthiness certificate and production license issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, becoming the world's first unmanned manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) to obtain the "airworthiness three certificates", and becoming a benchmark enterprise to promote the development of new quality productivity and help the high-quality development of low-altitude economy.

Affected by the low-altitude economic support policy, many well-known enterprises have poured into the low-altitude economic track.

Low-altitude economy refers to a comprehensive economic form dominated by aircraft, guided by various low-altitude flight activities, and driven by radiation to integrate and develop in related fields, with the characteristics of long industrial chain, wide radiation, growth and strong driving force.

Including GAC, Xpeng, Geely, etc., are all competing in the flying car track.

On December 12, 2019, EHang was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the world's first listed company focusing on urban air mobility.

On April 7, the Central and Southern Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China issued the world's first unmanned manned aircraft production license to EHang, which indicates that the company's product EHang EH216-S has been qualified for mass production, providing an important guarantee for the next step of commercial operation.

Fully independent intellectual property rights

"Our products have been sold to the United States. Lin Qiao said.

EHang has nearly 500 employees, of which nearly 50% are R&D personnel, and the total number of relevant patents and intellectual property protection reserves is leading the industry.

EHang released the world's first manned unmanned aerial vehicle EH184 in 2016, and its products are currently divided into EH216 series of multi-rotor VTOL aircraft, VT series of composite wing VTOL aircraft, Falcon B series of UAVs for multi-rotor industry applications, and GD series of formation performance UAVs.

Among them, the self-developed EH216-S manned unmanned aerial vehicle is EHang's flagship product, which is a manned vertical take-off and landing aircraft capable of autonomous driving, which can be applied to manned transportation, air tours, air logistics, medical emergency response and other scenarios, and has completed nearly 50,000 safe flights in 15 countries around the world.

"We are the new quality of productivity. "All equipment is produced in China, including chips." The relevant person in charge of the Airworthiness Certification Department of the Central South Bureau of Civil Aviation said that EHang will continue to do a good job in post-certification management and construction, including the original R&D and design team of EH216-S to do continuous safety improvement to ensure the construction and continuous improvement of the production quality system, as well as the construction of after-sales service.

The low-altitude economy has broad prospects

Since the beginning of this year, the low-altitude economy has not diminished, and it has been written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time, and the National Development and Reform Commission has also proposed to create new growth engines such as low-altitude economy.

At the press conference of the State Council Information Office on April 17, Jin Xiandong, director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the low-altitude economy involves logistics and transportation, urban transportation, agriculture and forestry plant protection, emergency rescue, sports and leisure, cultural tourism and other fields, as well as high-end manufacturing, artificial intelligence and other industries.

Regarding the development trend of the low-altitude economy, Jin Xiandong said that at present, the mainland has a good foundation for the development of the low-altitude economy, which can be summarized as "three haves". The first "yes" is that there is a policy. Relevant departments have introduced a series of management systems around the optimization of the approval process for flight activities, the classification and demarcation of airspace, and the real-name registration of UAVs. The second "have" is that there is a basis. By the end of 2023, 449 general airports and 32 flight service stations have been built and registered across the country, exploring and expanding low-altitude economic development scenarios according to local conditions. The third "have" is ability. The mainland's new low-altitude aircraft are showing a vigorous development trend, especially the wide application of new technologies such as information and communication, Beidou navigation, and high-precision navigation, and the continuous progress of autonomous driving technology of some enterprises will provide technical support for the development of low-altitude economy.

However, Jin Xiandong also stressed that the development of the mainland's low-altitude economy is still in its infancy, and there are still many difficulties and challenges in strengthening the top-level design, improving the safety supervision ability, improving the infrastructure and basic rules and systems, and cultivating market formats.

"In the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will coordinate and cooperate with relevant departments, adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, better coordinate high-quality development and high-level safety, and promote the formation of a good situation of healthy development of the low-altitude economy with rich and diverse scenarios, intelligent and efficient supply, and standardized supervision and safety, with market demand as the traction, technological innovation as the drive, and airspace opening as the guarantee. Kim Hyun-dong said.